Live in Thanksgiving Daily

I have been meaning to do this post for a while now but just never got around to it. The past few weeks for our family have been emotionally tough. After we found out about our second failed IVF attempt, we found ourselves with a lack of hope for our future and completely lost about what to do next for our family. During this time I remembered a talk I had studied for a class at BYU about being thankful. Since November is a month to focus on being more grateful, we decided to challenge ourselves to become more grateful. For our first Family Home Evening in November we read the great talk I had studied previously, it is "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" by Elder Wirthlin. He gave this talk at a BYU devotional while I was there and then I had the chance to study it for a class later. It is a beautiful talk about making gratitude a daily part of our lives. That night for FHE we started a Thankful Jar and every night before we go to bed we each write down something we are grateful for. It has been fun to focus more on all the things we are thankful for like Thomas the Train, dishwashers, a wonderful spouse, welcome home hugs from Caleb, and the gospel in our lives. We also have started to say only prayers of Thanksgiving. It is amazing all the things that come to your mind as you say only prayers of gratitude and don't ask the Lord for anything. We challenge everyone to become a little more grateful during this season. What are you most thankful for? What a blessing an attitude of gratitude has been for our family during this time of sorrow.

A Thomas the Train Halloween

Well I finally got the time to show off our fun Halloween this year. Caleb is obsessed with Thomas the Train and so he decided to be Thomas for Halloween. I decided to make the costume and set out the big project of creating my son's costume to his precise specifications. We did have a lot of fun making this costume. Caleb helped me paint the boxes and anything else he could do. It was so fun to watch him get excited as Thomas came to life. Grandma was a big help when she came to visit and the finished product was amazing. The best was watching Caleb be so proud and excited about being Thomas the Train!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Grandma Manning Visits

We were fortunate enough to have Brydon's Mom come visit us for a couple weeks and help out during our Invitro process. We got to do a lot of fun activities in between everyone being sick. Grandma does not like pictures being taken but I was able to sneak in a few fun action shots!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Black & White Photos

Here are the black and white photos as well. It took so long to get the colored ones posted that the black and white just had to wait.

New Family Pictures

Well we had the great opportunity to have Peggy Woolsey take our family photos this year. It had been a while and we were so excited to go outside in the fall. Here are a few of our favorites. Family and friends will need to weigh in so we knew which ones to send out to everyone. Check out the new pictures in our blog background as well. My favorites are kind of ordered from bottom to top. (Sorry still trying to figure out to post pictures how I want.)

The Pumpkin Patch

Right after we were married, we discovered that Holiday decorating was a passion we both shared. So we started watching for sales and pining and saving for a few years for some specific items. We love holidays! (Especially Brydon) It was so much fun this year to pull out the Halloween decorations and have our son enjoy them as much as we have. So I had to post some pictures of the very happy Halloween boy.

Check out the cool Haunted House!

I just can't leave it alone. It is so cool! If you come to my house I will turn off all the lights and make you listen to it.

Look out for the little Devil dog!

I also really love these pumpkins. We spend a lot of time in the dark looking at glowing pumpkins and Haunted houses.

I just had to try on my costume from last year!

Last week we also had a chance to visit the Linvilla pumpkin patch. Last year we had not fully discovered the potential of this place and so we were so excited to take Caleb this year. It was a tradition in Utah and now we have a fun place to go here. Caleb had a blast trying to pick out the very best pumpkin. We haven't painted or carved it yet but just wait, I am sure it will be a masterpiece!

We made it! I had to have a picture with these huge pumpkins. We didn't see the "Do not take Pictures" sign until it was too late! Ooops...

I am having a blast and am the master pumpkin picker outer!


Ahhhh...these pumpkins look great! How do I look?

I found my pumpkin and I can even carry it....sort of!!

Yep I'm a poser! We make quite the match.

Beware of the crazy Witch....oops...that is just my mom!

What a perfect end to the day!

A Testimony of Prayer

So last night my son's prayer went like this:

"Heavenly Father, Bless those babies. Bless Caleb, Mommy, Daddy, and Cooper to have a baby. Bless those babies to come to my house. Bless that there no webs and no spiders. Name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

The past few nights Caleb has woken up early and been very whining, cranky, and extra tired. We haven't been able to figure out what was going on until the other night when he yelled out in his sleep and woke up at 3 in the morning. When I went to check on him, he told me a very vivid story about how a spider was in our house and how he tried to touch the spider web but he got stuck and then the spider came to get him. He was very concerned that the spider was now in our living room. I stayed with him until he could fall back asleep, and began to wonder if bad dreams were the reason Caleb has been so extra tired and cranky lately.

Last night we talked to Caleb about dreams and how the spider wasn't real but was just a bad dream. He was still very concerned about the spider. Then we told him that he could say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to help the spider go away and help him have good dreams. Lately Caleb has been struggling saying prayers. He has prayed for months to have a baby come to our family to no avail. He has begun to refuse to pray and has been very sad and agitated whenever we see a baby or talk about someone else having a baby. Last night it was so wonderful to hear his sweet, faithful prayer to ask his Heavenly Father to help him with his two greatest problems: a baby and bad spider dreams. This morning when he woke up at his regular time with a smile on his face, he informed me that he slept good. Heavenly Father had answered his prayer.

It was such a blessing to me to see my son get an answer to his sweet prayer. It has been discouraging to all of us that a baby has not come to our family but a night without out bad dreams was a testimony that Heavenly Father still does love and answer our prayers. We just don't always know when or how, that's the hard part. How grateful I am that Caleb got to receive an instant answer to his prayers so that his testimony of the power of prayer could be strengthened.

This weekend during General Conference we were again reminded of how much our Heavenly Father loves us and wants the best for each of us. Elder Packer's wonderful talk about prayer and the story of the sick cow was again another testimony of the power of prayer. You just never know when the Lord may save your cow because of a simple prayer from a dear little one.